Thursday, 9 October 2008

Just got a signed e-mail message from Daniel Vettori himself about the blackcaps.co.nz site:

Welcome to the new BLACKCAPS.co.nz! Thanks for your patience while we got our new website ready. We hope you like it!

While the BLACKCAPS have been warming up for our series in Bangladesh, our website has undergone a transformation.

We've written to you, as a supporter of the BLACKCAPS, New Zealand Cricket or the game in general, that our new online presence is back and better than ever.

To receive regular updates on the latest news from our new look newsletter, just register on the site.

Thanks once again for support,

Daniel VettoriBLACKCAPS Captain

And I have to say, the new site is pretty. The shambles that was the old site has been cleaned up – it now seems quite straightforward to actually find stuff. It also hits the usability notes: it's focussed on users, the pages aren't excessively busy, the navigation isn't as messed up as it was in the old site. Design wise, it's a winner.

As I get most of my cricket from online sources these days, it's encouraging to see New Zealand leading the world in exploiting the internet. (We are kinda let down by this site though.)

That having been said, although there is a shitload of information on blackcaps.co.nz, there isn't a hell of a lot happening there. Perhaps there's some dynamic, interactive content coming, but until then I'll visit the site for the official word on schedules, but not much else.

The Blackcaps website is much better, great to see less random advertising as well. Needs much more content, but I am sure that will happen over the course of the summer.Refreshing to see that their livescore updates are much faster than that of cricinfo today.